After raising 3 boys, I finally have my life back. Now .... what to do with it!!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

I've Been a Busy Girl...

I have been a busy girl the last couple of days. I promised myself once I finished the gifts I made for Christmas, I would work on some of my UFOs before I started anything new.

The first project was to finish up some mug rugs I pieced before Christmas. I put them aside so I could finish gifts. I just kind of made them up as I went along. Now that I know what I'm doing, I think I'd like to make some more of these. They were fun and quick, and useful.

The next finish, is a baby quilt I started in 2008. A relative was expecting a baby, and I made a baby boy quilt and a baby girl quilt, since they didn't know ahead of time what they were having. This was one of my first attempts at free motion quilting. I had some problems with the tension on my sewing machine and while the top looked fine, the back was a gnarled mess of thread. I spent hours taking out the quilting I had done and by then was tired of looking at it, so I put it away. (The relative had a baby boy ... lucky for me!! I sent the baby boy quilt. He's 2 now!!)I've done a lot more free motion quilting since then, mostly on small projects, but I seem to be getting the hang of it, so I thought I'd finish this up. I don't have anyone to give it to, but my boys are at that age where their friends are starting families, so somebody will have a baby girl one of these days!!

Next is a table runner I made for a fall giveaway in blog land in the fall of 2009. As I was quilting it, somehow I got a big wrinkle in the back, so once again, I put it away to be finished another time. Fortunately, I had made two of them, because I wanted one to keep. That one turned out fine and now resides in a home in New Zealand. (That still amazes me that something I made belongs to someone halfway around the world!!)Anyhow, I finished it up and got the binding on and it's now at home on my coffee table. It's just what was needed there.

My last finish, isn't really a finish ... it's just progress, but I'm happy with it, so including it here. Last year sometime I bought a couple of charm packs of Cotton Blossom by Moda. I didn't have a plan for it, just wanted something new to sew on. I decided to do a disappearing 9 patch. I got the 9 patches made, and that is as far as I got. This week, I cut the blocks up and pieced it. This is a picture of the blocks laid out on my living room floor. I'd like to add a border or two and use it for a wall hanging or a lap quilt in my living room. I don't really have anything in my stash that will work, so I'm going to have to find some fabric to finish it.While I had the camera out today, my baby girl, Peanut wanted to have her picture taken too.Doesn't she look just like one of those Ewoks from the Star Wars movie? She's like having a live teddy bear!! Scooter wouldn't let me take his picture today. He's kind of camera shy, but Peanut is a ham ... always has been.